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Mobile app from RT DE: No live TV for the time being
Photo: Felix Schlikis / Lobeca / imago images
The Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (MABB) is the authority that has to carry out a thankless task: At the beginning of the year, the Commission for Licensing and Supervision (ZAK
)
of the state media authorities decided to allow the Russian state medium RT DE to organize and distribute a television program in Germany prohibit.
There is no corresponding media law approval.
RT DE initially broadcast its German-language live program via its website, among other things, and took legal action against the decision of the state media authorities.
But on March 17, the Administrative Court of Berlin rejected the urgent application, a decision against which RT DE Productions GmbH has not lodged an appeal in the next instance.
According to the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority, the decision of the Berlin administrative court to ban the television program »RT DE« is now legally binding.
The MABB wanted to prevent RT DE from continuing to broadcast initially by setting several fines.
According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", the company had paid an initial fine of 25,000 euros, albeit after the deadline.
However, the MABB can now temporarily suspend the further execution of the enforcement measures for fines that have been imposed (40,000 and 50,000 euros).
Because according to "current findings" by the MABB, RT DE Productions GmbH has completely stopped broadcasting the television program "RT DE" in Germany.
»No intended distribution for the general public«
The RT DE website can currently only be accessed at addresses that differ from the standard address.
Behind the link to the »Live TV« menu item there is actually a red stripe with the words »We are very sorry.
Our live stream is not available in the EU«.
Also on the video platform Odysee, to which interested parties switched after RT DE was blocked on YouTube, it says: »Content not available.
RTDE has requested that Odyssey block this livestream in the European Union.«
At least as far as the continuous live program is concerned, the statement of a spokeswoman for the media authority on SPIEGEL inquiry applies: "There is therefore no intended distribution for the general public in Germany".
On the one hand, however, individual video contributions can still be called up via the alternative addresses of RT DE, in which the air raid on the maternity clinic in Mariupol is denied and other positions of Russian propaganda are conveyed: The decision of the media authorities relates exclusively to the linear TV program, not to on-demand posts or even the website itself.
On the other hand, the MABB has to admit: »We cannot rule out the possibility that technically experienced Internet users can access streams intended for foreign countries via special software«.
But the hands of the media guards are tied.
Anyone who absolutely wants to be informed from Russian propaganda sources will succeed.
But at least the media authority has now prevented the accidental slipping into RT's German permanent program.
Should RT DE feed in its live stream again, the Berlin-Brandenburg media watchdogs reserve the right to continue the enforcement – then the fines would come into play again.
Feb